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Fresh violence rocks Gaza
05/03/2008 09:08 - (SA)
Jerusalem - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to wrap up her latest Middle East peace bid on Wednesday only hours after Israeli troops briefly rolled into the Gaza Strip in another deadly incursion.
Rice had been meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem on Tuesday night when Israeli forces backed by helicopters clashed with Hamas gunmen after several tanks entered Gaza, witnesses said.
A 20-day-old girl became the latest of at least 23 Palestinian children killed since last week, raising new worries about peace prospects after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas broke off all contacts with Israel on Sunday over killing that had left more than 120 Palestinians dead.
A senior Islamic Jihad militant was killed and 10 Palestinians, including at least three gunmen, were wounded in the Tuesday night fighting, after two had been killed earlier in the day.
Rice had earlier called for Israel to be "very cognisant of the effects of its operations on innocent people" and called on both sides to renew peace talks.
"We look forward to the resumption of negotiations as soon as possible," she said after meeting Abbas.
'Negotiations are necessary'
She said President George W Bush's goal of resolving the decades-old conflict and inking a historic peace deal by the end of his term in January 2009 was still possible.
Bush, too, said he was still "optimistic" about the prospects for the peace talks, relaunched to great fanfare at a US conference in November after a seven-year freeze.
The US president urged the two sides to "step up" efforts to end the violence and reach a deal.
Abbas did not say when he might return to the negotiating table, but insisted that "the negotiations are necessary and we are committed to them".
Among talks scheduled for Wednesday, Rice is to meet lead Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei, who has said negotiations will resume once Israel's military operations in the Palestinian territories end.
The top US diplomat is also to meet Israel Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak.
Abbas called on Tuesday for a truce between Israel and the Palestinians, both in his West Bank powerbase and in the Gaza Strip, which has been ruled since June by the rival Hamas movement after the Islamists routed his forces.
"I insist on the necessity of installing a comprehensive truce in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank so that we can reach our goal of making 2008 a year of peace," Abbas said.
But Hamas rejected the Palestinian president's call for a reciprocal ceasefire, insisting the blame lay with Israel.
'Strikes will continue'
"We consider the statements of the Palestinian president about the truce an unbalanced call because the problem lies in the occupation, not in the Palestinian people," its spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Rice reiterated that the rocket fire had to stop and called on Israel - which earned international condemnation for excessive use of force during the Gaza attacks - to spare innocent lives during its raids.
Barak warned that the strikes on Gaza would continue as long as militants fired rockets, and he placed the responsibility for the killing of civilians on Hamas.
- AFP
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